The Beetle: A Mystery

The Beetle A Mystery I saw him take a different shape before my eyes His loose draperies fell about himd there issued out of them a monstrous creature of the beetle tribe From out of the dark and mystic Egypt comes The Be

Title: The Beetle: A Mystery

Author: Richard Marsh David Stuart Davies

ISBN: 9781840226096

Page: 317

Format: Paperback

I saw him take a different shape before my eyes His loose draperies fell about himd there issued out of them a monstrous creature of the beetle tribe From out of the dark and mystic Egypt comes The Beetle, a creature of horror, born of neither God nor man , which can change its form at will It is bent on revenge for a crime committed against the devotees of an I saw him take a different shape before my eyes His loose draperies fell about himd there issued out of them a monstrous creature of the beetle tribe From out of the dark and mystic Egypt comes The Beetle, a creature of horror, born of neither God nor man , which can change its form at will It is bent on revenge for a crime committed against the devotees of an ancient religion At large in London, it pursues its victims without mercy and no one, it seems, is safe from its gruesome clutches.Richard Marsh s weird, compelling and highly original novel, which once outsold Dracula, is both a horror masterpiece and a fin de siecle melodrama embracing the fears and concerns of late Victorian society Long out of print, The Beetle is now available in this Wordsworth edition, ready to chill you to the marrow and give you nightmares.

One thought on “The Beetle: A Mystery”

"A face looked into mine, and, in front of me, were those dreadful eyes. Then, whether I was dead or living, I said to myself that this could be nothing human,--nothing fashioned in God's image could wear such a shape as that. Fingers were pressed into my cheeks, they were thrust into my mouth, they touched my staring eyes, shut my eyelids, then opened them again, and--horror of horrors!--the blubber lips were pressed to mine--the soul of something evil entered into me in the guise of a kiss."OM [...]

Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.Set in London amidst the Victorian era, The Beetle gives the testimonial account of four characters whose lives intersect as they struggle to solve the mystery behind a terrifying creature – a gruesome beetle originating from Egyptian lore – sent to enact revenge on a British politician. As a gothic novel, The Beetle’s claim to fame is that it was published in 1897 – the same year as Bram Stoker’s [...]

Review to come, eventually. Damn my new job and all the hours it's taking away from me. I will say that it starts off great. Then it was just long-winded and boring as hell until the end (I know, such great analysis there). Three stars may be too generous.2.5 Stars

The Beetle was published in the same year as Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897), and there are many aspects of the two gothic novels that are similar: the multiple narrators, the exotic and mysterious supernatural threat, the remarkable sense of place. The Beetle initially was the more popular novel, and I can appreciate its appeal. It's got a little bit of everything sensational, from orgies, shape shifters, and human sacrifice to cross-dressing, hypnotized victims, Isis worship, and dead bodies in d [...]

The Beetle may not be the greatest book in terms of literary value, but I will say that it is a hell of a lot of fun to read. To me it is the literary equivalent of comfort food, and its Egyptian flavor along with all of its over-the-top moments remind me a lot of the old pulpy horror/gothic books I devoured as a nerdy kid on rainy days. It seems that no matter where I turn to find a literary review of this novel, everyone wants to compare it to Bram Stoker's Dracula. The two books were publishe [...]

It was a pleasant surprise, this book. Very readable in a totally unpretentious way, a typical Victorian gothic story, which seems to have been more successful than Dracula at its apparition (both were published the same year) but was eclipsed by the latter in time, unduly, I’d say.There is nothing really extraordinary in its structure, which resembles Dracula’s and many other novels’ of the nineteenth century – with its several narrative voices that intend to increase the contrast betwe [...]

So far, so splendid.The Beetle was first published in 1897, the same year as Dracula, which it outsold consistently for the next 25 years or so, until the Hamilton Deane play revived interest in Stoker's book and made the Count the cultural icon he is today, while Marsh's book fell into undeserved obscurity.There are a lot of similarities between the two, from the shifting narrators (admittedly done better and with greater complexity in Dracula) to their stories, both of which involve sinister f [...]

This sounded so tremendous, and then it turned out to be your standard Victorian Orientalist hissy fit with a healthy side of period-appropriate sexism. Yay.In fairness, the first part is elegantly creepy, so that alone is worth a read. However, that momentum is simply not sustained throughout, in spite of some snappy dialogue here and there. The book fails as a weird tale but succeeds as a social document of its era's anxieties regarding gender roles and imperialist attitudes. Except that's not [...]

once i realized that the beetle's author, richard marsh (pseudonym for richard bernard heldmann), was the grandfather of one of my favourite writers, robert aickman, i was very excited to read it, and it is clear that a talent for horror was passed down the generations. the novel was published in 1897, just prior to bram stoker's dracula, and i'd say the rather more engaging novel of the two. horror stories quite often depend on the idea that none of us are safe from random chance. any innocent [...]

Everyone should read this. It was released the same year as Bram Stoker's Dracula and was actually more popular at the time, but has since fallen into obscurity. I think it's even better than Dracula and definitely twice as weird, a genre-spanning supernatural romp that draws from Dickens, Conan Doyle, Victorian romance, and weird scientist fiction and involves cross-dressing, sex cults, and just about everything else. Make sure if you get the Broadview edition to not read the footnotes the firs [...]

What a weird, fun book this is! It's a bit of a combination of horror, mystery, and Victorian Sensation novel. Here's what says about it:"The Beetle (or The Beetle: A Mystery) is an 1897 horror novel by the British writer Richard Marsh, in which a polymorphous Ancient Egyptian entity seeks revenge on a British Member of Parliament. It initially out-sold Bram Stoker's similar horror story Dracula, which appeared the same year."It's told in four parts, each part narrated by a different ch [...]

""A face looked into mine, and, in front of me, were those dreadful eyes. Then, whether I was dead or living, I said to myself that this could be nothing human, -nothing fashioned in God's image could wear such a shape as that. Fingers were pressed into my cheeks, they were thrust into my mouth, they touched my staring eyes, shut my eyelids, then opened them again, and-horror of horrors!-the blubber lips were pressed to mine-the soul of something evil entered into me in the guise of a [...]

I found this in Second Hand shop it is classic Horror but unlike Dracula or Frankenstein this not well known .Which a great shame because it's every bit as good & certainly better than Phantom of The Opera. One not to be missed if can find it.

I read "The Beetle," by Richard Marsh as part of a literature theory class which sought to apply the theories we learned to different sections of the novel. Because I read the novel with this frame of mind, I feel as though I read into the character's actions and the diction much more than I typically would. The reason I enjoyed this book was because it is one the first times vampires are explored in literature (excluding Dracula). The novel, although not written from a modern perspective, actua [...]

A great read -- one of the fundamental novels if you are looking into Gothic horror. Great combination of Victorian stuffiness and sheer weirdness, with a great deal of rushing about in Hansom cabs and knocking on the doors of deserted houses. The version I found to read was supposedly "edited" by Julian Wolfreys, but it is really just annotated and explained to a fare-thee-well, even including footnotes to tell readers what "blimey" means -- the guy must think we're all stupid. At the same time [...]

First published in 1897, The Beetle is a strange little mystery adventure story. I mistakenly went into it thinking it was a horror or dark fiction tale. And while I guess it could be considered horror, only the very first portion was the least bit scary. A blend of Isis worship, mystery, Keystone Cop chases, hypnosis, politics, humor and romance, it's difficult to categorize The Beetle. It is well written-it's just all over the place. Even though it wasn't horror, I did enjoy this book-uneven t [...]

Some lovely flesh-crawling stuff in here. I was looking for "Curios", but came across this on the way. Apparently "The Beetle" was more popular than "Dracula" back in the day. I can see why. The first few chapters were fabulous, hooked me good and fast, and the story kept on from there - the different narrators bringing various points of view and keeping the story fresh. It was fun - eerie fun! (Loved the beetle carpet.)I had a horror of beetles when I was a kid, so I *GOT* this book.

Richard Marsh’s The Beetle is certainly one very bizarre and outrageous book. It’s included in Victorian Villainies, which includes four Victorian mysteries, elected by Graham Greene and his brother Hugh. It’s actually a short novel. Although it’s a mystery it contains very definite elements of the gothic, it involves supernatural or apparently supernatural events, and there’s some horror. It was written in 1897, and it highlights some of the obsessions of that time period. Hypnotism p [...]

Almost identical to 'Dracula' in the way it is presented, and in the way the best bit is over by the first 50 pages, this atmospheric Victorian occult novel would have benefitted from some heavy editing.

Published in 1897, the same year as "Dracula," Richard Marsh's imperial gothic novel, "The Beetle," outsold Stoker's vampire tale for a quarter of a century before, oddly, falling out of print. Telling the story of a fantastic creature with hypnotic powers who stalks a British politician through fin de siècle London in revenge for defiling an Egyptian cult to Isis, this book not only presents a radically critical stance on the failures of late 19th century imperialism, but it does so with an ac [...]

Strange little horror that starts out truly creepy but unfortunately devolves into a Victorian chase-about with the evil "Harab" racing about London and southern Britain with an enormous bundle on his head and two hypnotized victims in tow (I'm not exaggerating). Full of the wonderful gender and racial stereotypes that make this sort of fiction so much fun.The beginning is so bizarre you feel like this has to be great. In fact the entire Holt narrative is exquisitely weird. It is pretty obvious [...]

If I was allowed to give a half star, this would have received two and a half stars. I enjoyed large sections of the novel: the moments where characters experience the terror of the eponymous 'Beetle' are some of the most genuinely unnerving in Victorian Gothic fiction; the hypnotism used by the Arabic person to make people his unwilling servants is also expertly done, and captures precisely the sense of mental struggle and fright. Elsewhere, however, the novel suffers from being slightly too cr [...]

Okay but inferior Victorian potboiler with similarities to Dracula. I can see why this is college lit class bait, it uses an unusual structure and is pretty transgressive for its time. It starts with a tramp who one day climbs through a window and is made a captive of an unearthly creature that seems neither man nor woman. He is then sent to steal papers from a certain up and coming politician. When confronted, he only has to utter the words "The Beetle" to send him into blind fear. He escapes, [...]

A fun, fast-paced read through the fascinating imagination of Richard Marsh in fin de siecle Victorian England, this work is marred mostly for the expected reasons - sexism, racism, imperialism, and the interesting female character loses narrative agency after successfully fighting to have a place in the adventure. This tale has a lot in common in terms of historical moment and readership with Dracula, its at the time less popular but more lasting contemporary, but has more interesting character [...]